Mutagenesis: The Secret Behind BLACKLIGHT
by GrimAltair24
Summary: There’s always a cure to everything...but what about a deadly virus that has the power to kill millions of people, infecting them in the process and turning them into total monsters...There was no way my brother and I could’ve known that a cure existed..
1. Breakout

Author's Note: Welcome to my second series posted on FF. This is in first person, like Fable.

_Chapter 1: Breakout_

I was in my room in our apartment, which was where we lived with our Dad. Our parents got divorced when I was 7 and Cáel was 5, and Dad took us in since he was the one with a high-paying job. Skyler Jaedyn was our father, and he worked as a well-known scientist at GENTEK. He was also one of the scientists who worked on Project BLACKLIGHT, which is the very reason that New York still looks like hell today. Dad told Cáel and I about BLACKLIGHT, everything about it, because if he couldn't get the truth out to the entire world, he would have to do with the only two people he would trust not to say anything about it: his children. If we were to tell anyone about it, Blackwatch would be on our asses and gun us down like dogs. _Hmph, just like what happened to that Mercer guy just this morning, _I pondered.

Remembering the sudden and tragic event, I turned to my computer and brought up the video from Penn Station. Earlier in the month, I had hacked into Blackwatch's classified videos, and today I found one, the video that had a recording of the entire event, straight from Penn Station cameras. How Blackwatch managed to get the videos, I had no idea.

I watched as the hooded man ran to the front of Penn Station, stopping in front of the entrance, the doors locked. The man was wearing what looked like a white collared dress shirt underneath his gray hoodie, with its hood up over his head. He also wore a black leather jacket over his hoodie. _Guy must like wearing his layers..._

He turned, realizing he had been cornered by multiple Blackwatch soldiers. I saw the vial in his right hand, filled with a red liquid. _T__he virus...BLACKLIGHT..._He looked down, his teeth gritted. He raised his right arm, the vial poised in the air. With an angry shout, Dr. Alex Mercer threw the vial to the ground, breaking the glass, and releasing the virus into New York. Not a moment later, Blackwatch pulled the triggers on their firearms, and fired several bullets into Mercer's chest. Blood spurted forth from his chest before his eyes widened, and he fell to the ground, landing on the vial of red liquid he had shattered. He didn't move one inch: Mercer was dead. I shivered, the sound of the gunfire echoing inside my mind, as well as the sound of the vial shattering to millions of pieces. This was how parts of New York became infected. All thanks to Mercer. I closed the video window and turned in my chair, to see a black haired boy standing at my door, watching me with narrowed eyes. My younger brother, Cáel. 13 years old.

"You do know that it's _his_ fault that the virus broke out, right?" I sighed. Cáel had become very disappointed with the fact that I always watch that video. He also grew a sort of grudge for Dr. Mercer. I leaned back in my chair, holding up my hand in an I-don't-care manner.

"Yeah, but he's dead, isn't he? What's the point in hating a guy for what he's done when he already got killed for doing it? Remember what Dad said? Mercer ran away with the virus sample to save his own ass." Cáel scowled, his teeth showing.

"A selfish act...and a stupid one, too." I let my arm drop down to my side at Cáel's words, and I stared at my computer screen in a daze as I ran over the things Dad has told us. Apparently, he knew Alex, and they were good friends as well. I remembered what he said this morning after Alex died, today, the day BLACKLIGHT was released.

_ "It's hard to believe. Alex, one of my best friends, was killed when he was trying to save his life, breaking out BLACKLIGHT in the process." Dad sat down on the living room couch, not a hint of emotion on his features, but in his eyes, we saw sadness and fear. "He told me why..." His voice nearly cracked. "...right before he took the sample and ran...He told me he knew our lives were in danger. We both knew that a lot of GENTEK employees were 'disappearing,' and he knew why. They held critical knowledge to Project BLACKLIGHT, and Blackwatch couldn't trust them to keep their mouths shut." I watched as he leaned forward, arms laying on his legs, his hands folded in front of his face as he stared at them in thought. I sat down next to him._

_ "Then why did he take a sample of the virus?" Dad chuckled softly._

_ "Alex was a smart man. He took the sample to ensure that he wouldn't get killed. He called it his 'life insurance.' If he kept it with him, he knew that GENTEK wouldn't kill him, not with such an important weapon in his hands..."_

_ "So he threatened to release the virus if they tried to kill him?" Cáel asked with acid in his voice. I glared at him before looking solemnly to Dad. He shook his head, a grim smile on his face._

_ "That wasn't the only reason he took the sample, Cáel. He took the sample so he could reveal it to the world, reveal what deadly weapon the government was working on...Everyone has a right to know..." Cáel narrowed his eyes._

_ "He threatened to reveal it if they tried to kill him...he took it so he could save himself. He did it so he could save his own life, and endangered thousands of lives in the process. He did all of that to save himself, and that's it." Cáel stated coldly. With that, he left the room. I sighed, and stayed at Dad's side that entire morning until he left for work._

"Anyways, Dad called." Cáel's voice brought me out of my thoughts and I raised a brow at him, noticing he didn't have that hateful look on his face anymore.

"Really? From work?" Cáel nodded. "Must be important, then." He sighed and looked me in the eye.

"Yeah, it is. Dad's gonna be staying at work over the night. There's too much mutant activity going on, and GENTEK insisted that he stayed. They can't afford to lose him." My eyebrows creased in worry and I opened my mouth to speak, but was cut off by what sounded like a car crash outside the my bedroom window, screams followed. Cáel gasped and we both turned to the window, eyes wide with shock. I stood up and walked to the window before pulling on a nearby string, making the blinds rotate so I could peer through the slots between the thin panels. Our apartment was on the 6th floor, second from the very top.

It was dark out, and the street lights below illuminated the street with an orange glow. There was indeed a car crash down in the street, and there were frantic people running everywhere. I then realized that the cause of the crash was a group of infected people, mutants, lashing out at the people below and screaming distortedly. I winced as I saw people get mowed down by their claw-like hands, screaming in terror. Cáel walked up to look as well and he tensed at the sight, fear present in his eyes. I merely regarded the incident with a cool frown and l released the string, letting the blinds' panels close, preventing us from watching any more of the mess. The screams could still be heard. We stood in silence for a few minutes before I began to head for my door. I stopped before it and turned to look back at Cáel, a sheepish smile on my face.

"Want some dinner?" ...Despite the fact that it was almost 10:00 p.m.

Being the only woman in the household, I was the cook. If I had let Dad cook, there would be a mess and not very good food. If I ever had let Cáel cook, the apartment would catch on fire. I decided to make macaroni & cheese, enough for just Cáel and me, since Dad wasn't going to come back. My heart sank at the thought and I grew worried. If we lost Dad, where would we go? We have no idea where Mom is, or if she's even alive. I guessed it really was best that he stayed at work.

Cáel and I were eating at the kitchen table, watching the news the entire time. Pretty much all of it was information on infected areas and which areas weren't infected, which was definitely areas with military bases. We always scowled when anything Blackwatch came up, especially at the speeches and interviews for them. They always had a knack for lying. I scoffed and turned to my bowl and ate some more of my food, noticing that Cáel hadn't taken his gaze away from the TV, eating his food at the same time. _Brain-dead little kid..._The voice of the anchorwoman still went on.

"We now have a report from one of our on-sight newscasters, live at the New York City Morgue, where we get a report from a Blackwatch official about the incident today at Penn Station." Cáel and I looked at each other, curious and knowing looks on our faces. "Handing it over to you, Amanda." The scene switched to the outside of a large building, with Blackwatch soldiers patrolling its perimeters. A blonde woman stood with a mic in her right hand, facing the camera.

"Thanks, Lisa," Amanda replied. "As you can see, I'm standing right outside the morgue where Dr. Alex Mercer's body resides. Earlier today at Penn Station, Mercer attempted to get away with a significant virus sample from GENTEK, a company he was employed at. He was apparently shot by Blackwatch after he destroyed the sample, and died in front of Penn Station." She turned to a Blackwatch soldier. "Sir, would you kindly tell us about the incident today?" The soldier hesitated and I rolled my eyes to Cáel, who didn't look too pleased either as he glanced at me. The soldier began,

"The target was believed to have...mental problems." I gaped at the TV screen and leapt from my seat.

"That's total bullshit!" I shouted, shocked with disbelief. Sadly, the Blackwatch soldier continued,

"He was mad enough to actually threaten us with a sample of a virus GENTEK was working on. The reason he took the vial is simple: he was crazy, and the reason for his execution was because he was a threat to us and the people. We couldn't let him get away. He paid for what he did, and it's his fault the virus broke out. That's all I have to say." Cáel had wide eyes and I simply shook my head to get rid of the lies I've just witnessed. From what Dad told us about Alex, he was anything but crazy. He sounded like an average guy, a nice one at that. Cáel sneered.

"Those bastards...Thinking they can lie their asses off just to save face." I continued to watch the TV.

On the screen, the Blackwatch soldier gave his goodbye and the reporter turned back to the camera.

"Well, that's it from here. I'm your nightly news reporter directly from the scenes and-" The woman was cut off by a large crash sound far off to the right and I managed to catch a glimpse of a black blur run right behind the reporter and raced past her and the Blackwatch, causing her to shriek in fear as dust began to rise. I jumped at the sudden movement and my eyes widened, as did Cáel's. We heard the Blackwatch soldiers giving orders and were immediately there to see the damage, or maybe after that blur thing I saw.

The reporter managed to recover, as did the cameraman, and they turned to see a taxi with a large dent in its roof. Words couldn't describe what was going on through my head now. Shouts and questions could be heard from the TV as I turned to Cáel, less shock written on my face than his. I glanced to my room, muttering,

"There's no doubt that Blackwatch has that video, right? I mean, they always get a copy of videos involving them..." Cáel's eyes widened before he narrowed them dangerously at me.

"Don't you dare. You've hacked them countless-" I didn't let him finish as I began to run to my room. He turned in his chair to shout, "They might catch you this time!" I sat before my computer and replied,

"Oh, please! The only thing they know how to do is kill people and be total d-bags! Their computer staff suck and they've never caught me in those countless times!" I brought up the Blackwatch website and I clicked on Videos. A note popped up,

Password?

I chuckled and flexed my fingers before placing them on the keyboard, a grin on my face. My fingers began to type rapidly, entering a hack code only I knew how to crack. I clicked ENTER and the screen went white, and after a few seconds I had full access to the Blackwatch video files. I only knew how to get to their videos, everything else I admitted, was too risky to break into. With that I found the most recent uploaded video, and it was, as I predicted, the news broadcast we just watched. Entering another hack code that was known for downloading videos without getting noticed, I leaned back in my chair and waited for the download to complete, which could take a while. I looked up to the ceiling in thought, pondering on what that blur could have been. The entire purpose to getting that video was so I could freeze the image and get a good look at it.

I stood up before I walked to my window, and pulled a different string from before. The blinds were pulled up, the panels stacking against each other as they locked at the top of the windowpane. The mutants seemed to be gone, and now a few people were walking around. Silence. I sighed. _If only it **would** stay silent._ I looked up to see a full moon, with a couple clouds shielding its glow. _Why do I have a feeling that it's gonna get worse from here on out?_ I thought dreadfully.

Hearing a ping noise, I turned to my computer and realized the download was complete. I walked over to the desk and sat down, placing my right hand on the mouse. I clicked on the video and it opened, revealing the reporter Amanda and the morgue behind her. I fast forwarded past the interview with the Blackwatch soldier and stopped when he left, before playing the video. Amanda turned to the camera, reciting those words she had said earlier.

"Well, that's it from here. I'm your nightly news reporter directly from the scenes and-" I heard the crash and I poised my cursor above the pause button, with my anticipation rising. _Wait for it.._.As the blur crossed the screen, I instantly hit pause. My face brightened with hope, only to be crushed as I realized I had paused it a second too late. I groaned. _Very fast..._Using Previous Slide, I clicked on the button multiple times and watched as the blur slowly moved back onto the screen, and I paused. What I saw was too impossible for my mind to comprehend. _The hoodie, the leather jacket, the white collar shirt..._There, poised in a running stance, just behind Amanda's left shoulder, was the man who had been killed this morning. My eyes widened.

I fell back out of my chair with a shocked yelp, landing on my rear in a heap. Cáel must have heard the loud thud I made when I made contact with floor, because he instantly ran to my doorway and was standing there with a cautious look in his eyes. He glanced around my room before locking eyes with me.

"What?" he asked, panting. "What'd you find?" I never took my eyes off the screen, and I pointed at it.

"Why don't you take a look?" Raising an eyebrow, Cáel took a step forward to my computer and squinted at the screen, before leaping back in shock. His eyes were wide and he turned to me, mouth open.

"Leila..." he began with a quavering voice. "...I-Is that...?" He trailed off, not daring to finish the question. I nodded, my shocked face turning into a face of amaze and disbelief.

"Yeah...there's no doubt about it..." I stood up and walked over to stand next to him, the both of us staring at the paused video feed. "Alex Mercer...is alive..." I muttered softly, trying not to believe the very words that came out of my mouth.

We stood there in silence, both attempting to understand what we've just seen. Alex Mercer, the man who released the virus in New York, survived several bullets to his chest and was now running loose in New York. I groaned and walked over to my twin sized bed before sitting down with my right hand on my forehead.

"This can't be good...How the hell did he survive those bullets?" Cáel shook his head, obviously clueless.

"I don't know...but did you see what he did? He was running _faster_ than a cheetah, and he made a _huge dent_ in that taxi's roof!" My eyes narrowed.

"No doubt that Blackwatch is gonna go after him..." I looked at the video again, and focused more on Alex. Narrowing my eyes, I noticed that hazy waves of red and black were circling his legs as he ran. It looked like they were _protruding_ from his legs. Putting careful thoughts to my solution, I fell back on my bed, staring up at the ceiling with my arms out wide. "Maybe that's how..." I muttered. Cáel raised an eyebrow and asked,

"What's how?" I stood up and walked over to the window, gazing out at the moon. I crossed my arms and slowly began,

"Remember that, once Mercer broke the vial, the virus broke out?" I didn't need to look to know Cáel nodded, so I continued. "It infected everyone there, so..." Dazed, I held up my hand, the back of it looking toward me as my palm faced the ceiling. I stared thoughtfully at my hand. "What if the virus infected him as well?" Cáel shifted and replied,

"It's possible. Do you think it made him capable of what he did just now?"

"You mean give him powers?" Silence met my question and I added, "It obviously mutated him, turned him into something...something far more great than the weapon they were aiming for." I lowered my hand looked at Cáel. He narrowed his eyes.

"I think that's the result GENTEK was looking for, a human weapon..." I hummed.

"No, they wanted a weapon that would only target certain races." I looked at Cáel in the eyes and he nodded.

"We should call Dad." I nodded in response and stood up.

"I'll do it. Can you clean up the kitchen?" Cáel nodded.

"Yeah, sure." He exited my room and I grabbed the phone on my nightstand, which stood next to the head of my bed. Dialing several numbers, I held the phone up to my right ear and waited as it began to ring. I was calling Dad's cell, and for a good reason. If I called his office number, Blackwatch would listen to it. Can't have them do that, especially since we knew about Alex Mercer. After a few rings, Dad picked up.

"Hello? It must be really important if you called on my cell..." I smiled at Dad's voice; he was okay.

"Yeah, it's Leila. Listen, there's something I've got to tell you, Dad."

"Hold on." I heard footsteps. He probably moved somewhere private. After the noise faded, he said, "Alright. What is it you have to tell me, Leila?" I took a deep breath and slowly replied,

"It's about Mercer, Dad. He's _alive_." Dead silence met my ear and I knew that he was shocked. After a few minutes, his response surprised me.

"You haven't told anyone?" I shook my head.

"Who do I have to tell? Only Cáel and I know about it." He sighed.

"Good." I bit my lip before adding,

"Dad, I think the virus infected Alex..." I sensed him nodding.

"Yeah, that's what I think, too. BLACKLIGHT must have revived him when he was in the morgue." His voice seemed soft, as if he was trying to coax me or something. Or was he just trying not to get caught?

"He's completely changed, Dad."

"I can imagine. Why, what happened? How did you find out?" I took a breath as I glanced at my computer.

"Cáel and I were watching the news and that's when he broke out. It was at the morgue, when a reporter was interviewing Blackwatch. I have the video up right now on my computer. I'll show you it once-" He sighed, cutting me off.

"Leila, you hacked into Blackwatch's videos..." I winced at the disappointment in Dad's voice. He never liked it when I hacked their videos, especially when I could get caught.

"Sorry, but I had to. After seeing what happened outside the morgue, I had to know what I saw." There was silence, and I heard a voice in the distance.

"Mr. Jaedyn?" I guessed it was one of the other scientists. Dad replied,

"I'll be right there. Please give me a minute." There was a few footsteps and Dad whispered into the phone,

"Alright. Leila, listen. We'll discuss this when I get back tomorrow. I'll see you then, okay?" I nodded and closed my eyes.

"Okay. Be careful, Dad. Love you."

"Love you too, Leila. Bye." I responded softly,

"Yeah, bye." I hung up and placed the phone back in its receiver.

I stood there for a few minutes and my eyes automatically focused on the frozen image of Alex Mercer. My eyes narrowed dangerously. A_lex Mercer...just what are you going to do now, after turning New York into complete hell?_

_Another note: So there we have it! Chapter one ending with a pissed off main character! What'd you guys think? _


	2. Never Take a Walk in New York

_Author's Note: I do not own The Frosted Flakes Theme Song. And Warning: Since this chapter has a lot of action, there will be more swearing. _

**CHAPTER TWO: Never Take a Walk in New York**

**7:00 A.M.**

**Manhattan, New York**

I was eating cereal at the kitchen table as I watched Cáel hang up on the phone. He turned to me and said,

"Dad's on his way home. Said he probably won't get here until noon." I nodded and turned my gaze to the TV. Sadly, the GENTEK lab Dad worked at was in a district right outside of an infected area. He said that a lot of mutants leave the area and come storming into the streets outside the lab. That's why it takes him a while to get home. _Well, at least he gets a troop of army soldiers to escort him..._I added. Cáel sat down on the opposite side of me and poured himself some cereal into a bowl before adding milk. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"You're being awfully quiet..." he muttered. I looked at him as I was chewing some cereal bits. I swallowed and prodded my food with the spoon in my hand.

"Well, I've been thinking a lot lately," I simply replied. Cáel took a bite of his cereal and asked as he chewed,

"About Mercer?" I inwardly chuckled at the sound of his voice, but outwardly it was my turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Pft, you think he's the only guy I think about..."

"Well, I thought you would ever since we saw that video," he retorted. I rolled my eyes and said,

"Whatever..." I looked at the TV again and mused, "It's amazing that they haven't reported anything about him yet." Cáel scoffed after chewing his food.

"Well, of course. If word got out that Blackwatch failed to neutralize a threat, it will ruin their rep. They probably bribed, or better yet, _threatened_ the news channels not to spread word of any Mercer sightings." I hummed and after a few minutes of silence amongst the sounds of the TV, I clearly, although randomly, muttered,

"The world is so fucked..."

"You got that right..."

After eating breakfast and cleaning up the kitchen, it was almost 8:00 a.m. There's always nothing to do, especially since _children_ such as ourselves have to stay inside our homes when the mutants are out and about. _I could be hanging out in the public library by now, reading some good history books...damn you, Alex Mercer..._Then again, it's GENTEK's fault for making the damn virus in the first place. _Well, damn them, too._ I sighed from my sitting position on the living room couch, and leaned my head back to stare dully at the ceiling. Cáel watched me, a book in his hands.

"Bored already?" I nodded gloomily. "That's a new record. It hasn't even been an hour yet." I whined,

"Shut up..." He chuckled in response and resumed reading his book. After a few minutes of silence I looked at my little brother, and called out, "I don't understand how you can deal with the horror of being locked up inside a house all day with nothing to do..." He simply turned a page of his book with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I have my ways." I narrowed my eyes at him and let my eyes rest upon the ceiling once more. "You're no fun..."

"It's better than listening to your theories about Blackwatch," Cáel piped out. I glared at the TV and after a few minutes of silence, I gave up, looking back at my younger brother. I raised an eyebrow at the rather large book in his hands.

"What're you reading?" I asked. He didn't glance up at me when he responded, turning another page as he did so.

"_Brisingr_ by Christopher Paolini." I raised my eyebrows even higher.

"Again?" He simply nodded as he made eye contact with me before adding,

"There's nothing else to read." He returned to reading his book and I turned my attention back to the TV, but not before muttering,

"You've read that book 15 times already..." I had no idea if Cáel had heard me, but if he did, he obviously wasn't listening, or he chose to ignore me. I half-heartedly watched as the news anchorwoman prattled on about the New York 'crisis,' or so they called it. Lazily throwing a nearby pencil at the screen (which deliberately missed), I sighed once more.

"If you sigh one more time, I'm going to chuck this 784 pages at your head. And if I'm lucky, it will knock you out cold and I will have my long desired peace and quiet." Just because I didn't hear any threatening tone in Cáel's voice, didn't mean he was being serious. _Took me 3 years to catch on to that, too..._I made a note not to sigh again. I stood up from my seat on the couch and walked to my room before entering the doorway. I looked over to my computer screen, and remembered that I had left the monitor all night, not to mention the paused video of Alex Mercer. I raised an eyebrow. _How did I even get any sleep with the screen blaring that nagging image at me the entire night?_ I guessed I must have been pretty tired. I walked over to my window and pulled open the blinds, revealing the glass entirely. It was a nice and sunny day with a few white clouds. Well, that's how it was in the uninfected areas. In infected areas, let's just say it wasn't very pretty. I looked down and a smile came to my face when I saw no mutants in sight. _It really is a good day, _I mused. Inhaling deeply, I stretched my arms in the air before giving a relaxed exhale, my lips still smiling. I let my arms fall to my sides and an idea soon popped into my mind as I was staring down at the street below.

Hands on my hips, and with a beaming grin on my face, I exited my room and stood in the kitchen. I watched as Cáel kept reading his book, not acknowledging my presence. I took a deep breath and asked in a cheery voice,

"Guess what?" Not taking his eyes off his book, he turned another page and guessed,

"You found your brain inside your closet?" His face was impassive and I shook my head, deciding to play along.

"Sadly, as much as the world would desire for that to happen, seeing as they obviously need my knowledge...no." That caught his attention and looked up to me with a raised eyebrow, silently asking for me to get on with it. I puffed out my chest in proudly, grin still present and crazy. "I'm gonna go take a walk!" Silence met my announcement, and I could tell Cáel was positively astounded. But if any sign if that was present on his features, he completely erased the traces and frowned at me before returning to his book.

"You're crazy."

"When was I never?" I retorted. I turned to the front door, beaming, and began to walk to it. "Anyway, I'm on my way out~" I sang. I heard Cáel's emotionless voice mock sing in response,

"Have fun getting attacked by freakish mutant monsters~" I grinned even more as I opened the door, stepped out, and shut it behind me.

* * *

I just exited the elevator and was now heading for the apartment front doors. I paused when I spotted a middle-aged man behind the desk in the lobby, fumbling with some papers and glasses rested on the bridge of his nose. I smiled and waved at him.

"Hi there, Robert." Robert snapped his head up in surprise, but he relaxed once he saw me and spoke with a British accent.

"Oh, Leila. Good day, my dear. How are you?" I chuckled.

"Yup. And you?" He nodded and gestured to the papers, chuckling.

"Yes, I feel absolutely in tip-top shape! Just filling out some bills and lists." He seemed to have paled when he realized I was heading for the front doors. "Leila, what on earth are you doing?" he asked, shocked. I turned my head to look at him, still heading for the exit.

"Going for a walk." His eyes practically bulged out, comically too.

"Wh-What?!! L-Leila! You're only a _child!_ You can't go out there! The-The monsters-" He made to run for me but was having difficulty opening the gate that separated the lobby from the back of his desk. I was already out the door, and I poked my head back in with a pleasant smile, cutting him off.

"-Are gone, Robert." I laughed lightly. "Don't worry. If I see a mutant, I'll simply run straight back here. See ya." I then exited the building, taking proud steps as I basked in the sun's rays. _Ah, glorious sun...How long have I missed your war-_

"How long does it take for you to get from the lobby to the front doors?" I shrieked and instinctively leaned on one foot, leaning away from the source of the voice, my hands poised awkwardly in the air, bent over my head. My other leg was bent and in the air, leaning away as well. I blinked as I stared at the boy next to me.

"Cáel?" He was staring at me with unconcerned eyes, obviously laughing at me within in his mind. We stared at each other in silence, and Cáel decided to break it with his impassive voice.

"...Kodak moment." And within that second, he quickly whipped out a Kodak camera and a flash blinded my eyes.

"Gah!" I got out of my shocked stance, rubbing my eyes whimpering. "Could you have at least turned off the flash?" Cáel shook his head as he slipped his camera back in his pocket.

"Nope. The flash probably made your expression ten times more stupid, which is good." I glared at him. Cáel always carried a camera around, said that it's an excellent way to capture memories.

"And what glorious title will it go under this time?" He smirked.

"Under the category: _The Most Stupidest Events That Can Happen Around My Idiotic Sister._" My glare intensified, and if looks could kill, Cáel would be 10 miles deep in Hell right now...or Heaven, either one. I sighed and asked,

"Anyway, why'd you come? Back in the apartment, you sure didn't sound interested." He simply shrugged until a grin appeared on his face.

"You know me. I'm always there for some adventure." I smiled. Cáel was still my younger brother, and there's no way I could stay mad at him. I nodded and blinked.

"Wait. How did you get out here?" He simply pointed up.

"Fire escape. Got here before you did, obviously, so I waited. Robert freak out on ya?" I smiled before crossing my arms.

"Yeah. He sure was shocked to see me walking out the front door. I wonder what he'll think when he finds out that the _both_ of us had gone out?" I gave him a pointed glance. Cáel simply shrugged with a sheepish grin.

"Probably have a heart-attack." I lightly punched him on the shoulder as a slight scold.

"He's not that old." I protested. He laughed and after it died down, I stretched my arms once more. "So..." I grunted out. After the stretch I lowered my arms and looked at my little brother. "Where should we go?" Cáel deadpanned.

"I thought you had somewhere in mind." I chuckled nervously before suggesting,

"How about the park?" Cáel thought a bit and he finally nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds nice." I smiled.

"To the park then." Cáel responded with his own little grin.

* * *

I noticed Cáel cautiously glancing around as we walked on sidewalk. I raised an eyebrow.

"Something wrong, Cáel?" He continued his glancing and muttered,

"It's just...it's been a while since we've been outside." I sighed and wrapped my arm around his neck, before squishing him against my side. He reacted with a yelp and tried to escape me.

"Relax. It's not like a mutant is gonna come out and attack us. Look around, there's a lot of army soldiers around here. They don't have a chance." His escape attempts stopped and he muttered,

"Well, now that you mentioned that, I'm more afraid of those guys shooting me...and I'm not afraid of the mutants." I smiled, released my younger brother, and leaned down to his eye level.

"Oh, then is it Alex Mercer you're afraid of?" Cáel glared and moved to protest but he stopped when he saw something over my shoulder and paled, but I was too distracted to look. I gave a little laugh. "Ha, I knew it. I knew I shouldn't have shown you that vi-" I was cut off by Cáel's harsh whisper.

"Leila, shut up!" I did, confused, and he gestured with his chin over my shoulder. "Look..." I blinked and looked over my shoulder, and my heart instantly stopped.

Two Army soldiers were watching us, one a mere soldier and the other a lieutenant, and they looked _real_ suspicious. _Oh God, did they hear me?_ I gulped and my fear was confirmed once the soldiers began to walk over to us. The lieutenant opened his mouth as he and his comrade got closer,

"Hey, you two! Stay where you are!"

"Shit..." I cursed under my breath and turned to Cáel to mutter, "Run!" He nodded and, not a moment later, we were both running down the sidewalk, away from the army.

"Hey! Stop!!" I felt fear rise and I looked back to see the the two soldiers chasing us. They definitely looked like they had something now. I looked to Cáel, and he looked a bit frightened before he glared at me.

"Why'd you have to go and say that?!"

"What?! That's the first time I've ever heard of the army actually paying attention to citizen conversations!" I gave a quick glance back before looking ahead. My mind clicked when I saw an alley several yards ahead, and I took another look at the soldiers behind us, realizing that they were a bit behind. As soon as we neared the alley, I took Cáel's hand and made a sharp turn, giving him a good whiplash when I jerked his arm in order to have him stay in step with me. Halfway down the alley, I stopped at the wall of the building on the right, immediately spotting the fire escape that led to the roof. I swung Cáel to the front, his back facing me, ignoring his yelp of surprise. I pushed him closer to the fire escape. "C'mon, before they catch up," I whispered. It dawned on Cáel and he immediately began to climb the fire escape's stairs, with me soon following. After a lot of steps, we managed to make it to the roof as soon as the soldiers rounded the corner, and did they look _shocked_. Cáel and I peered over the edge of the roof, listening in on soldiers.

"What the fuck? They just disappeared..." the soldier exclaimed. The lieutenant shook his head and looked to him.

"Yeah, well...whoever the hell those kids were, they know about ZEUS, which is _definitely_ not good. McMullen will not like it one bit." Cáel and I looked at each other. _...ZEUS?_ We turned our attention back to the men down below. The soldier shrugged.

"Sir, with all due respect, they're just kids. What can they do with just a little information about...it?" This caused us both to raise an eyebrow. Were they talking about Alex? The lieutenant only scoffed.

"Feh, you can't trust anyone these days, son. You never know what's coming to ya." He turned to exit the alley, the soldier still watching him. The lieutenant looked back at him. "This is gonna be a secret between you and me, son. Got it?" The soldier saluted.

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Good. Whenever you're on patrol, keep an eye out for those kids." The soldier, still saluting, nodded.

"Yes, sir." The lieutenant nodded.

"Alright. Let's move out." They both left the alley, and as soon as they were out of sight, Cáel and I exhaled. We scooted back from the edge and sat up straight, looking up at the sky. I was lost in thought after what those two Army goons had just said. _ZEUS...They must have given him a codename or a title of some sort...Has he really caused that much trouble already?_

"Oof!" I grunted. I was brought out of my thoughts by my younger brother, and quite painfully too. "Dead arm..." I muttered painfully as I caressed my abused left limb.

"If you weren't such a blabbermouth, we wouldn't have been chased by those soldiers!" he scolded. I sighed and gave a grin.

"Well, at least we didn't get caught." I stood up and looked around before muttering, "You know, it feels nice, to be up here on the roofs. You can see anything...We should do it more often." Cáel narrowed his eyes at me.

"You mean _you_ should do it more often. I'm not gonna risk getting caught by any Army or Blackwatch soldiers." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Suit yourself." I lent a hand to Cáel to help him up, he took it, and I pulled him up. We walked to the fire escape and began to descend it, when Cáel asked,

"What do you think they were talking about? The 'it'?" I looked down at him.

"Well, my best guess is..." I leaned down to whisper, "Alex Mercer," before leaning back. "The virus must have really changed him if they refer to him as an 'it.'" Cáel hummed in agreement as he reached the ground.

"It's still hard to believe that he's alive..." I scoffed when I joined him on the ground.

"It just shows what GENTEK is capable of, or more rather like, what BLACKLIGHT is capable of..." I shivered as I said those words and said, "Well, let's go-" I was cut off by a shrill scream and more soon followed. We turned to the opposite end of the alley and saw people running away to the right. I looked to Cáel with wide eyes and returns the look. We both ran to the the end of the alleyway and exit onto the street. What we saw made us freeze. Just up ahead in an intersection of the street, was a rather large group of mutants, and people were getting killed.

I spotted a crowbar of some sort nearby on the sidewalk, and I grabbed it. Cáel looked shocked, his mouth open, and he saw my determined face.

"Yell at me all you want, but I'm not gonna let those people get killed." He closed his mouth, and his eyes narrowed before he took my crowbar out of my hands. I blinked as he walked over to a small sports store that was lined up with other small buildings. He stopped at its window, which had golf clubs and bats behind it. Putting both hands on the crowbar, he held it back, like a baseball player, and I winced as he swung it forward. A large portion of the glass window shattered, making a hole in the window. Cáel swung again, making the hole big enough for his arm to stick through. I winced again, but at the sound of the glass shattering. Cáel then stuck his right arm through the hole, and he pulled his arm back out, with a metal baseball bat in his hand. He smirked at me and threw the crowbar into my hands, which I caught rather clumsily. I looked him in the eyes, confused. He cocked his head to the mutants in the intersection.

"Well? Are we going to help save humanity or what?" I smiled and nodded before we both ran down the street, avoiding people who were running in the opposite direction.

I heard tires screeching and we both looked ahead to see a car driving out of control, the driver looking panicked as he swerved left and right. I cursed and yelled to Cáel,

"Look out!" As the car got close we both dived in different directions, and the car drove past us. I landed on my stomach, causing me to grunt at the contact. Once the car passed I used my arms to push me up to my knees and look at Cáel. He was already standing and he looked at me.

"You okay?" he called over. I nodded and got up to my feet before running up to him. I huffed,

"That was too close..." Cáel nodded and we both looked to the intersection, where the mutants were. I tched and started running, with Cáel not too far behind. As we neared the intersection we heard a scream, and it sounded like the scream of a woman. I looked to the left and saw a woman lying face-down on the ground beside an abandoned car. She looked hurt and my heart lurched when I saw a couple of mutants approaching her. I looked to Cáel and he nodded.

"Don't worry." He held out his left hand and slammed the end of his bat into its palm. "I'll cover you." I nodded and we both ran for the woman. The mutants saw us and one of them gave that horrid scream before they both charged for us. I noticed that as I ran for the woman, Cáel stopped and held the bat behind his head as a mutant ran toward him. He swung and nailed the mutant in the head, sending it flying a few feet to the right. After that, Cáel began running again after me again. I reached the woman, and I was close enough to see her better.

She looked young, in the twenties or so, and had black hair.

She was wearing a red long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans. She had blue eyes and they looked scared, and were brimming with tears. My eyes softened and I knelt down beside her, and set down the crowbar before gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Miss, what happened?" She whimpered once, and looked up to me fully. She trembled and said in a sobbing voice,

"M-My right leg...I think it's broken or something..." I narrowed my eyes and moved near her leg to get a better look. I looked at it closer and saw blood stained in her jeans, and her leg was twisted in a weird angle. I narrowed my eyes even more and looked at her.

"What's your name?" She looked at me, and replied,

"Laura...My name's Laura..." I nodded and moved in front of her when I heard Cáel approach.

"Alright...Laura, can you sit up?" She laid in silence, obviously thinking about the possibility.

"I-I think I can..." Without a word, she used her arms to push herself up, only to fall back down with a cry of pain. I instantly put my hand on her back again. I looked back to Cáel and he raised an eyebrow.

"What do you got?" I shook my head.

"Her name's Laura, and it looks like her leg's broken. I-" I stopped when I heard a mutant cry and saw a mutant run at Cáel, aiming for his back. " Cáel, behind you!" He reacted immediately, his bat in his left hand and he turned to his attacker. He swung and the bat made contact with the mutant's midsection, right in the side, and I heard bones crack. The mutant flew to the floor, and Laura screamed in fear. The mutant was still moving when Cáel recovered, and he walked over to it before raising his bat high above his head with both hands. The mutant gave one more scream before Cáel brought the bat on its head, and the head got squished with a splattering sound, blood all around the neck. I winced once before turning to Laura, who had wide eyes from the event that just happened.

"Laura, look at me." She did, and she seemed to have calmed down once she did. "I'm gonna have to turn you on your back so I can get a better look at your leg." Slowly, I added, "It might hurt. Do you think you can endure it?" She tensed at my words, before giving a slow nod, her voice now brave.

"...Yeah. Yeah, I can." I nodded and placed my hands on her shoulder. Slowly, I turned her over onto her back, and she whimpered in pain when her leg moved with her. She was now laying on her back, and her face was screwed with pain. I felt guilty for having to make her go through more pain, but it had to be done so I could see her leg. I looked at it again, before turning to Laura.

"Look, I'm going to touch it so-"

"Just do it," she cut me off sharply under a breath. I flinched and nodded. _I just wanted to let you know that it would hurt..._I sighed and began feeling around her leg. Once I reached her calf, she yelped and I reluctantly kept feeling around it. Every movement my hands did on her calf made her freeze and I finally concluded,

"It's your leg. You must have shattered the tibia. That, or cracked it. Hopefully it's only a crack." She looked up at me.

"What's the tibia?" I looked at her, already feeling like a professional.

"It's the larger bone in your leg." I paused. "What happened to you anyway? What gave you this injury?" She shook her head.

"I-I don't know...All I remember is I was taking a walk and there was this...this flash of black and gray, then I felt like I was pushed or thrown. It was so strong, it sent me flying and I landed right here..." I narrowed my eyes.

"You must have broken it once you made contact with the ground." I looked up when Cáel approached me and said, "I'll be right back." I stood up and faced him. He had blood stains all over him. I looked him up and down before saying, "You must have been busy..." He scoffed and said,

"Yeah, so what now?" I looked over to Laura.

"She broke or cracked the tibia in her right leg...The only thing I can think of is get her into a building, away from the mutants." Cáel glanced around and pointed with his index finger.

"How about that one?" I followed his finger to see a small furniture store just a bit down the street.

"Sure, it will have to do." I turned and knelt beside Laura again. "Laura, we're going to take you someplace safe. This is my brother, Cáel." I gestured to him behind me, and he nodded.

"Nice to meet you, Laura." Laura nodded and I said,

"He's going to help you walk to that furniture store over there." I pointed to it and her eyes widened.

"What about the mutants?" I nodded with a determined face.

"Don't worry." I picked up my crowbar and stood up. "I won't let them get near you." She looked somewhat amazed and I let Cáel get to her. He handed her his bat and said,

"Hold this, please." He then gently placed his arm behind her back and helped her sit up, before wrapping his other around her stomach to help her stand. Once she was standing she whimpered at the pain in her leg, and Cáel asked,

"You okay?" She only nodded and Cáel wrapped her left arm around his neck to keep her up, holding it with his left hand. His right arm was wrapped around her waist to help keep weight off her leg. He looked up at me, equally determined as me. "Let's move." I nodded and began to lead them to the store.

Suddenly Laura screamed when a mutant spotted her and Cáel, and it charged for them from the other side of the street. I cursed and ran back to them, sprinting. Cáel gritted his teeth and shouted,

"Little help here!" I huffed,

"Hold on!" I looked at the mutant and noticed an abandoned taxi on the street, the mutant was going to run past it. I ran for the taxi and just as the mutant ran alongside the front. "Hey!!" I shouted before I slammed my crowbar on the hood, making a small dent, but a loud clang noise, which hopefully caught the mutant's attention. It apparently did as the mutant turned to me, its bloodshot eyes focused on me. I froze. "Shit..." It roared and I stumbled backwards as it climbed up on the taxi's hood, eyes still focused on me. I stopped in my steps and faced it, crowbar held up in front of me. It seemed pissed that I wasn't backing off and gave another scream before it leapt at me. My eyes widened and I sidestepped, making the mutant miss and land on its front. I instantly drove my crowbar into its back, piercing its heart and it screamed before it scrambled, trying to escape. I twisted the crowbar and as soon as I did, it stopped scrambling. I panted and pulled to get the crowbar out, but it didn't do any good. I placed one foot on the mutant's body, pulled again, and it came out with a gross squishy sound. I scowled and backed away before turning and walking over to Cáel and Laura, with the female looking appalled. Once I reached them I took a deep breath and looked at them both. "Shall we keep moving?" Cáel nodded and said,

"Great thinking back there, by the way." I muttered,

"Thanks." I kept close to them as we continued our way to the furniture store, which was now a few yards away. Luckily, no mutants made to attack us. They were too busying terrorizing all the other people. We soon reached the store and I placed my hand on the doorknob, twisted it, and pulled. Surprisingly, the door opened. I blinked and looked at Cáel, who was also as dumbfounded as me. He simply shrugged.

"Let's just get in already." I nodded and turned to the door, only to find a shotgun aimed at the spot between my eyes. I froze. "Leila!" I heard Cáel call my name, and he sounded scared and furious at the same time. I ignored him and let my eyes follow the shotgun to find roughly bandaged hands holding it, the hands connected to muscular arms. _No doubt it's a man..._I followed the arms up and noticed that the person before me was wearing a black sweater. I shook my head and looked up to the person's face to see a man with a little stubble on his chin and ragged blonde hair. His blue eyes were narrowed at me and one end of his lips were curled up in a scowl. I could feel myself shrinking beneath his gaze; he was at least two or three feet taller than me. I took a deep breath and puffed out my chest to look brave.

"I'm sorry, but we have a wounded friend and we only want to put her someplace safe." I warily took a step to the side and held out my hand to gesture to Laura. I took a step forward and sighed. "We would really appreciate it if you would let us keep her here." He glanced from me to Laura, then intensely brought his gaze back to me. He spat and lowered his shotgun.

"Follow me," he said gruffly. I looked to Cáel and Laura with a sheepish and relieved smile and whispered,

"Come on." Cáel nodded and helped Laura walk as he followed me into the building.

The building was dark, and the only light source was the sunlight coming from the front window. I followed the man into a room of furniture, some massive and some small. He walked over to a couch and gestured to it.

"You can put her here," he said to Cáel, who walked up to my side with Laura. My brother nodded and helped Laura over to the couch before supporting her to sit down. He then gently took her legs and placed them on the other side of the couch, making her lie down. She handed Cáel back his bat before she sighed with relief and looked to me.

"Thank you so much." I blinked, realizing she was talking to me and I smiled before shaking my head, looking down and blushing.

"It wasn't much..."

"It was." I looked up with surprised wide eyes. "You saved my life. I could have died out there if you didn't come to my rescue." I smiled warmly and nodded. She turned her head to face Cáel.

"Thank you, too." Cáel nodded.

"Your welcome, miss." Laura looked to the mysterious man to give him her thanks, but he was already walking toward me with a determined and angry face. ...wait, what? I tensed once he grabbed my arm, and started dragging me to the exit.

"Come with me." He must want answers. I looked to Cáel, who looked ready to pounce the guy.

"Wait there and watch Laura. I'll be right back." Cáel looked like he was going to protest, but any thought of that was most likely shot down once I gave him a death glare. I let the man drag me into the room and he pulled me to stand a few feet in front of me. He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

"Alright. Now tell me why two _kids_ are out in the streets when there are mutants running around," he ordered. I tensed and replied,

"We were simply out on a walk, having a good conversation until we were chased by two Army soldiers and-" The man held up a hand and cut me off.

"Wait. Army soldiers?" He sounded skeptical. I grinned.

"Yep! Anyways, we lost them and that led us here." I shrugged. "We decided to help as many people as we can, since all the Army and Blackwatch does is shoot the enemies and not help the citizens." The man raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth but I cut him off. "Okay, my turn. What's your name?" The man hesitated and muttered,

"Kurt Johnson..." I nodded and said,

"Nice to meet you, Kurt." I held out my hand. "My name is Leila Jaedyn." Kurt's eyes widened as he took my hand.

"Jaedyn? That famous scientist?" I nodded and said,

"Yep." We withdrew our hands and asked, "So what are you doing out here?" He shrugged.

"To survive. This is my hideout." I raised a brow but shook my head.

"Okay. Now that we know each other and our reasons, I'm going to go get my brother so we can get back out there." Kurt frowned and asked,

"You sure you wanna go out there?" I nodded and asked in a confused voice,

"You aren't gonna try and stop us?" He shrugged.

"Wouldn't care if you guys went off on your own will, even if you got killed." I narrowed my eyes as I entered the furniture room.

"Charming..."

"I try," he replied, loud enough for me to hear. I scowled and looked over to Cáel, who was sitting in a wooden chair.

"Get your bat. We're going back out." He nodded and stood up, his bat in hand. I looked to Laura, and my eyes softened sympathetically. "Sorry to leave you here like this." She shook her head.

"It's no problem. Just make sure you stay alive." I nodded and mock saluted.

"Yes, ma'am." She chuckled and waved Cáel and I off. We exited the room and found Kurt waiting for us, leaning against the cashier desk. We kept walking for the door.

"Hope you get lucky," he uttered. I nodded and replied,

"Thanks. Watch Laura for us, okay? Call an ambulance, while you're at it." He nodded.

"Will do." I took a deep breath when we arrived at the door and placed my hand on the knob. I opened the door and we both ran out, with Cáel shutting it for us.

We both ran out into the street, looking around frantically to take in the situation. I scanned the streets before I turned and noticed that Cáel was watching me expectantly. I blinked once before it dawned on me.

"Oh, his name's Kurt. He's gonna look after Laura for us." I looked at the intersection. "Anyways, looks like most of them is in the intersection. We should head there." Cáel nodded and asked,

"And if any mutants get in the way?" I scoffed.

"Mow 'em down..." He nodded and without another word, we sprinted for the intersection. We ran side by side, and I almost froze when a random mutant leapt at me from the side. I kept running, and I prayed I lost it but when I glanced over my shoulder, my prayers were ignored and the mutant was only two feet behind me. I cursed under my breath and spun around when I saw it leap at me. I raised the crowbar, and the mutant's mouth bit on to it, and I struggled to keep it back. It was swinging its arms at me, and I had to move from side to side to avoid its claws. "God damn it...!" I raised my right leg, bent it, and poised it in front of the mutant's stomach. With a cry I lunged my leg forward, nailing the mutant in the gut with my boot, and it stumbled backwards before it fell on to its back. I panted and looked to Cáel, noticing that he was fighting a mutant as well. It lunged for his face with its claws, and he leaned to the left to dodge, making the mutant fall forward. Cáel raised his right bent arm as it passed him, aimed his elbow, and drove it into the mutant's back. With a roar, he struck the mutant's back with his bat once it fell to the ground. He continued hitting its back, shouting with each strike.

"Stay. down. you. son. of. a. BITCH!!" I exhaled in relief and moved to cheer him on a bit, but I stopped once I heard a mutant roar. I turned and my eyes widened as I dodged a clawed hand that nearly scratched my face.

"Whoa!" I leapt back from the mutant, and I realized it was the one I downed earlier. I narrowed my eyes and held out my crowbar to the right, and I stood like a swordsman. I narrowed my eyes and the mutant charged at me. Once it was two feet in front of me, I shut my eyes, swung the crowbar, and when I heard the mutant scream, I knew I hit my mark. I opened my eyes when I felt the crowbar tremble in my hands, and I realized that the mutant was still screaming. I looked to where I hit the mutant, and I was revolted. The crowbar was lodged into the mutant's side, right in the middle of its ribcage. "Ugh..." I tried to pull out the crowbar, but it was stuck in there good. "Da** it, come on..." I pulled again, but it was only making the mutant scream louder. I gritted my teeth in concentration and kept pulling, but it was worthless.

"God damn it...shut the hell up!" I watched dumbfounded as the curved side of a metal bat struck the mutant's head on the side head-on. The mutant's head slouched sideways, and I guessed it was either dead or unconscious. It slowly fell like a rag doll, and landed on the ground before me. I let my hands follow the crowbar as it had no choice but to mimic the motion the mutant made in its fall. I looked up and saw a frowning Cáel, scowling at the mutant. "God, it was so loud. Wouldn't want that thing for an alarm clock." I raised an eyebrow comically as I panted.

"Have it for an alarm clock and it will kill you in your sleep, Cáel." He backed away for a bit and muttered a small, "no thanks." I chuckled and placed my foot on the mutant, and pulled, effectively yanking the crowbar out free. I looked up at him, before looking to the intersection, which was only half a meter away. I looked at the very center of the intersection and spotted a red car, most likely deserted. I pointed to it and said,

"Let's run for that car. Whatever you do, don't stop." Cáel followed my finger, and nodded.

"You got it." I inhaled and exhaled before breaking into a fast jog, with no doubt that Cáel was behind me. I realized a few mutants were in my path up ahead, and I gritted my teeth when they got closer. Huddling my entire upper body together, I yelled as I jumped,

"Outta the...WAY!" I don't know how, but as I shouted the last word, I managed to break through the mutants, and I felt like a quarterback football player breaking through some linemen, with the football in my hands. I landed on my feet and kept on running. Hearing those enraged roars behind me was a good motivation for me to keep running, and boy wasn't it working. I huffed and wondered how Cáel was doing. Knowing him, he probably ran around the mutants, or at least took a different route. Shaking my head, I focused on the task at hand and kept on running. Surprisingly, no mutants encountered me, despite the ones I passed. Also, there were humans who looked at me like I was crazy when I passed them. _Too bad they don't realize that Cáel and I are trying to save their asses..._I thought bitterly. I successfully reached the very center of the intersection and saw Cáel already there, bashing the head of an approaching mutant and sending it flying a few feet. He glanced back at me when I leaned against the car we were aiming for, pausing to get my breath,

"What took you so long?" I laughed and replied,

"Sorry." We both crouched next to the car and Cáel watched me expectantly.

"I assume you have a plan?" I nodded and stood up.

"Here's the plan..." I grinned as he looked as me with a confused face. "We make some noise." I held back my crowbar and swung it into the car, slamming it into the side door of it and denting it a little. Cáel blinked a couple of times, before he finally caught on to my plan. He smirked and stood up as well, before slamming his bat into the car just like I did with my crowbar. We both began pelting the car's side with a lot of blows from our weapons, and I soon began shouting loudly. Most of the shouting was complete nonsense and some of it was just a single "Hey!" Cáel joined me, and we were actually having some fun. I glanced around me and noticed some groups of mutants were stopping what they were doing to watch us. Some even started to get closer. I smiled and began singing loudly,

"Everywhere we go!!!" I banged the car four times and it sounded like a beat. Cáel grinned at me, immediately recognizing what I was singing. He opened his mouth and sang back,

"People wanna know!!!" He also banged the car a few times, and in a beat as well. I grinned back before I sang,

"Who we are!!!" I made a beat again, banging the car and denting it even more. Cáel didn't miss a beat.

"So we tell them!!!" We both banged the car once and shouted,

"We are tigers!!!" From then on, we kept banging the car offbeat, swinging like wild men and making the clangs louder and louder, going offbeat. "The mighty mighty-" Several roars and screams cut us off, and our joy in the moment was instantly replaced with determination. We stopped and any sign of having fun was wiped off our faces. We both slowly stood up straight and we quickly noticed that any mutant around was focused on us. I scanned the area around us, and I muttered,

"I estimate around 20 or so..." Cáel nodded and replied,

"Seems easy...Try not to get yourself killed, alright?" I chuckled.

"Same goes for you, bro. Same thing goes for you..." One mutant glared at us and roared before it charged at me, beginning the battle. I swung my crowbar sideways at the first mutant, making it fly to the side and land in a heap on the ground. I heard Cáel give a yell and I heard his bat make contact with something. At least it sounded like he was doing good. I dodged a lunging mutant and slammed its head with my crowbar, and I nearly hurled when I realized I had cracked its skull in. Basically, it turned into one of those epic duo battles in those action movies...I was beginning to tire out, and my arms were getting weak. I turned to spare a glance for Cáel, and realized he wasn't looking too good either. We were both trying to catch our breath. We both backed up to the car and I sat down, laying my back against the car. Cáel seemed hesitant at first, but he did so too. We both dropped our weapons. And, it was one of those times, when I felt very...hopeless...and I thought we were gonna die. I closed my eyes.

Of course, that was when I first saw him up close.

I jolted when I felt the ground shake beneath me, and my eyes snapped open. There was a figure standing before us, its knees bent and its back facing us, crouching low. It slowly stood up, and the dust around it began to fade. I got a clearer look at the figure, and I froze. It was a man, I could tell that much from his broad shoulders. He was wearing a black leather jacket, its sleeves had two white stripes on each one, with a grey hood coming up from underneath the jacket and covering his head, and a red insignia of some sort on its back. On his legs he wore faded blue denim jeans and he had on what looked like cowboy boots, his pants covering at least their tongues. I knew exactly who this was, and Cáel knew too. The man slowly turned in a 90 degree angle, and looked at us. My heart stopped, and paled under his gaze. Blank, intense, blue eyes were what I was staring at. He was glaring at us, and it was seriously intimidating. I wanted to crawl under the car and hide. He first regarded me with his narrowed eyes, then Cáel. We could only stare at him. _Of all things to come to our rescue, I seriously wasn't expecting-_My thoughts were cut off by a mutant roaring, and the man bared his teeth in anger, scowling. He turned back to face the mutants, and I could see the red and black string things shifting around him, coming from out of nowhere. He clenched his fists and the strings began shifting even faster and were close to each other, tensing. Words couldn't describe how scared I was.

Suddenly, we heard a chopper, gunshots, and men shouting. Some mutants were getting shot and killed by flying bullets. The man tensed and turned in a 90 degree angle again, his gaze above the car we were backed against and focused elsewhere. Cáel and I looked up when a chopper flew overhead, and the man before us watched it also. He sounded like he was snarling and before we knew it, he took off running through the intersection, breaking the circle the mutants have formed around us and tackling them as well. He turned down an alley and disappeared from our sights. My eyes were still wide and I was hyperventilating. I felt a hand shake my shoulder and I yelped, moving away from the hand in reflex.

"Leila, relax. It's me." I looked up to see Cáel, his bat in one hand, and I noticed that there was some dirt and blood on his face. I was panting and I felt relieved to see him. I remembered the situation we were in and my eyes widened.

"Shit...the Army's here." Cáel nodded and helped me up to my feet. I picked up my crowbar, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled, regaining my calm. Once we stood, we heard a shout.

"Hey!" Our eyes widened and we both looked down the street to see a soldier yelling at us. My breath hitched and I looked to Cáel.

"Run!" We both bolted to the left, where the sidewalk neared a corner around a building, and we ran alongside the structure. We both ran, and never looked back, until a few minutes later. I looked over my shoulder to check and see if we lost the soldier, and after all the zigging and zagging, we did. We took different alleys and turns on the way. Even though we knew that there was no point, we kept running, and didn't even pay attention to the questionable glances from people when they saw our bloodstained clothes.

After a few minutes of running, we managed to make it back to our apartment building around 10:00 a.m. I moved to enter the doors, but I felt Cáel grab my arm. I looked to him and he shook his head.

"It would be better if we get in through the fire escape. Robert would freak out." I instantly agreed with his point and nodded. We both slowly took the stairs up to our apartment, too tired to think. When we reached our window, Cáel pulled out the window's key and unlocked it before opening it and stepping in. I soon followed and once I entered, I shut the window and closed the curtains. We stood there in silence for a few minutes, and I uttered lowly,

"I'm going to take a nap."

"Same here." We both walked down the hallway and entered our own rooms silently. I shut my door and dropped the crowbar onto the floor as I walked over to my bed. I stopped next to it and merely let myself fall onto the mattress, flopping up and down. I moved to rest my head on my pillow and I curled up my body into a ball. Grabbing the covers, I threw them over me and I felt my eyes close. Once they closed, I knew it was going to be while before I could get any rest...because the cold, blue eyes of Alex Mercer were still there, glaring at me.

Another Note: Wow, wasn't that a lot more words than the first chapter? That's because when I get into action, I write A LOT. Anyway, review please!


	3. Chat With a Specialist

_Author's Note: Welcome to chapter 3! Now this one gets more dramatic, I guess. We are also introduced to two characters. Oh and P.S those of you who remember Robert the dude at the check in, I named him after my favorite book character! :D _

_----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

**Chapter Three : Chat with A Specialist**

**11:30 a.m.**

**The Jaedyn Residence,**

**Manhattan, New York**

"...The Frosted Flakes theme?" I scowled from my seat at the couch and turned around to face my little brother, who was at the kitchen counter, reading as usual. I narrowed my eyes.

"It was the only thing that came to mind..." Cáel scoffed and replied,

"I admit, the plan to get their attention by banging the car and shouting like idiots was brilliant, but to sing that?" I smirked.

"Hey, I vaguely remember you singing along." He was silent after that and I puffed my chest out in triumph. _Score one for the older sister!_ Silence fell upon our apartment, and all we could hear was the TV and the shifting pages of Cáel's book. I laid down sideways, parallel with the couch. taking up the entire space. I stared up at the ceiling in a daze, and I shivered when those blue eyes flashed in my vision.

"...You saw him too...didn't you?" It sounded more like a statement than a question as I said it, and I waited for Cáel to reply. It was silent for a minute and I inwardly sighed, thinking he wasn't going to answer me.

"Yeah...I did..." I continued to stare at the ceiling, and my eyes narrowed.

"The virus...BLACKLIGHT...it...really changed him, just as I thought."

"It did...and you should've seen how he got there." I shook my head.

"I didn't-I closed my eyes." I guessed he nodded at that.

"Yeah, I saw you. Anyway...I assume Mercer either jumped and landed in front of us, or he just came down from a roof." I hummed and added,

"He must be very strong...the entire ground shook when he landed, and it cracked as if a tank fell from a hundred feet. And he ran as fast as he did in that news feed..."

"...do you think he did it to save us?" I scoffed scornfully,

"Feh...yeah right. Did you see the look in his eyes? He looked like he was ready to kill us."

"But he didn't," Cáel added and I narrowed my eyes.

"Whatever. My best guess is that he was running from the Army." I looked at Cáel and his looked down in thought.

"You know, if he hadn't run in on us with the Army following him, we would be dead." I frowned.

"I know..." I turned to face the TV. "...but I wish it wasn't him who saved us." I wouldn't admit it but...I was scared just talking about him, because he kept popping into my mind, looking like he was going to kill me. I lifted my head when we heard what sounded like a door lock being messed with and we turned to the front door. The doorknob turned and a man with dirty light-brown hair and a white lab coat draped on his right forearm stepped in, muttering something to himself. He closed the door and turned to us, and we smiled. Dad was home.

Dad had rather messy hair sometimes, but he always managed to keep it a bit decent for work. He had blue eyes like Cáel, only a bit darker. He was wearing a slim, black long-sleeved shirt with dark blue jeans and black dress shoes. He looked up at us and our smiles faded away; Dad was frowning slightly. _Oh shi-_

"So, our dear old friend Robert has told me that you both went outside for a _walk_, when there were mutants out and about." My shoulders slumped and I uttered,

"Sorry. We didn't see any mutants out, so we thought it would be a nice day to go out." Dad's eyes closed in exhaustion and he sighed as he rubbed his right temple.

"What am I going to do with you two?" He opened his eyes to look at us again and he raised an eyebrow. "Is that blood on your cheek?" I blinked and rubbed my hand against my right cheek and drew it back to find a few specks of red. _Damn it, I must have missed a spot when we cleaned ourselves up earlier..._I chuckled and rubbed my hand against my jeans to get the blood off.

"Haha. Nah, we had scrambled eggs and I must have gotten some ketchup on me." Dad raised an eyebrow before he shook his head, getting rid of any suspicion or doubt he had.

"Anyway..." He sat down at the couch and his face grew serious. "You said that Alex is alive. I want to see this." I tensed and nodded before gesturing for him to follow me into my room.

"Alright. Follow me." He stood up and trailed me into my room and I sat down at my computer, bringing up the video once more. Cáel closed the door after he walked in as Dad stood behind me, keeping himself up with one arm on my chair. I looked back at him. "This is the video that the news channel recorded at the morgue..." I played the video and I tensed as I waited for Alex to run through. It finally happened and as the video ended, I could tell that Dad was shocked.

"Wh-What was that? Don't tell me that's..." I nodded grimly as I went into Previous Slide mode and clicked several slides back until I finally reached the paused image of Alex Mercer.

"It is..." I stared at the image of Alex Mercer as I heard Dad step back and sit down on my bed, shocked beyond comprehension. I sighed and closed the video before turning my seat to face him, and I found that Cáel was seated next to him. I looked at Dad and saw that he was leaning forward over, his arms resting on his knees and his head in his hands. He looked tired and exhausted, not to mention confused.

"BLACKLIGHT," he suddenly muttered. I blinked and he rose his head to stare at the ground with narrowed eyes. "That's what revived him. The virus must have entered his system and transformed his DNA...his entire genetic make-up." I looked at Cáel and he asked,

"So, it gave him powers?" Dad nodded and looked at his son.

"In a way, yes." He stood up and held his chin in right hand, thinking as turned and stared out my window, his back to us. "...I'm surprised that he accepted the virus though. He welcomed it with open arms, _consumed_ it...just like-" He paused and looked down, and I thought I heard him whisper, "_her..._" I raised an eyebrow.

"Huh?" Dad tensed and he turned around to face us, massaging his forehead as he sighed in exhaustion.

"It's nothing. Leila, I want you to keep hacking those BLACKWATCH videos." I nodded nonchalantly.

"Okay..." Silence followed and my eyes widened. "Wait, _what?_ You actually want _me_ to keep _hacking_ them?" He usually scolded me for hacking them, but hearing him actually wanting me to...What's up with him? Dad nodded.

"I want to study Alex." My eyes narrowed without my realizing it and I said,

"You make it sound like he's an experiment..." I regretted the cutting tone of my voice, and the fact that I sounded like I was defending Mercer, but I didn't say anything. Dad, on the other hand, seemed taken aback, his eyes widening, and he sighed.

"I'm not..." He paused before continuing slowly, "I just want to see if there's any way I can help him. If there is, I will, without any hesitation, help him, regardless of the risks." My eyes softened and I smiled unconsciously. Dad was always the one who would help anyone, no matter what. Dad closed his eyes as he sighed again before opening them, determination and pure intelligence present in his voice. "Whatever happened to him is beyond extraordinary. I have to know what went down and what he's capable of. If I can, I'll try and make contact with him, let him know that I'm there for him." Cáel and I knowingly glanced at each other uneasily.

"...Are you _sure_ that's such a good idea?" Cáel asked hesitantly. Dad paused and looked at us with a warm smile.

"Of course. We're friends. He won't attack me or anything." I shivered when those eyes flashed into my mind again and Cáel locked eyes with me, both of us showing a bit of fear. Luckily, Dad didn't see us and when he turned to me, I erased my fear. "So, how did that walk of yours go?" I tensed inwardly and chuckled.

"Oh, yeah..." I grinned and looked down to think of what to say before snapping my head back up. "It was _great! _We met this woman when we wanted to pet her dog." I subtly smiled at Cáel. "Her name was Laura." Cáel grinned and chimed in,

"Yeah, and we met this ice cream man named Kurt." My eyes bulged in surprise and I laughed uncontrollably. Cáel merely smirked and he laughed as well, leaving Dad clueless as of to what was so funny.

* * *

** 12:00 p.m**

We were sitting in the living room, with Cáel and Dad at the couch in the living room and me at the kitchen making lunch. Today we were going to have sandwiches. I poked my head out the kitchen doorway and called out,

"Lunch is ready, you guys!" As I returned to the counter, I heard footsteps and Dad walked in through the door, stretching his arms, yawning.

"Ugh, thanks for making lunch, Leila. I'm _starving_." I smiled as I placed Dad's tuna sandwich on his plate and handed it to him.

"I can imagine. I was thinking that they had you work all night since they told you to stay." Dad smiled back sheepishly.

"I'm sure they would have loved to do that, but they didn't." He shrugged before he sat down at the kitchen table and turned on the TV with the remote. "They said I already did enough work." I nodded in understanding and saw Cáel come in. I handed him his peanut butter & jelly sandwich.

"Thanks," he uttered. I nodded and as Cáel walked over to the table, I grabbed my turkey sandwich and followed. As I sat down, Cáel looked at Dad.

"So, what did you do the entire time at the lab if you didn't have to work?" Dad turned his attention from the screen to Cáel and shrugged.

"Nothing, really." He gave it some thought before saying, "Although, I did spend some time with Karen. I figured she needed someone there for her after what happened to Alex..." Cáel's eyebrows raised in confusion.

"Karen?" Dad opened his mouth to speak but I cut in before him, not glancing up from my plate as I took a bite of my sandwich.

"She was Alex's girlfriend, wasn't she?" Dad and Cáel looked at me in surprise and I blinked at them before shrugging. "You mentioned her a couple of times, Dad." Cáel blinked and he leaned back in his chair, staring at nothing.

"I guess I forgot..." I scoffed with a smirk.

"You were probably too busy reading your fantasy books..." Cáel glared at me and leaned in to retort but Dad simply pushed his head back a bit with his hand, his glare scolding.

"Now, now, you two. No fighting at the table." Cáel gave me a death glare before he sunk in his chair, arms crossed. Dad sighed and looked at me with a nod. "Anyway, yes, she was his girlfriend, although they broke up before the incident...But, girlfriend or not, she still cared for him, so she was devastated when she heard the news, which is why I spent time with her last night." Cáel and I nodded in understanding, and I noticed that Cáel's anger has dissipated as he focused more on his lunch. I smiled and turned to Dad, my brows creased in concern.

"So, how was she?" Dad exhaled and looked out the window.

"She's still shaken, and she eventually broke down after seeing me for a few minutes." I became worried about Karen and I watched as Dad looked down at his food, his hands now folded in front of him. "She must have known that I was there to comfort her, talk to her about Alex, and just the very thought of him makes her break." He closed his eyes and uttered, "I managed to comfort her and get her to calm down. After that, we talked about our memories of Alex and about and hour or two later, I gave her my best wishes and left." I inwardly smiled and thought, _Sounds like they both need each other. They're best friends, after all._ I finished the rest of my sandwich and picked up my empty plate before standing up to walk back to the kitchen. I reached the trash can and threw my plate in as I looked up to Cáel and Dad. They were both watching the news, something about a bunch of mutants around a building. I was silent for minutes, hesitant, before I asked,

"So, will you get called back to the lab again?" Dad tensed and he looked at me, and I knew that he could see the sadness in my eyes. Cáel looked to Dad as well, eyes reflecting the same sadness. Everyday, Dad was never home. Whenever he's home, it's only for 30 minutes up to an hour. Even when we had each other to keep company, it gets really lonely without Dad. We have gotten used to it, but still, it wouldn't be bad for him to stay a bit longer. Dad exhaled and stopped eating his food.

"Unfortunately, I'll have to leave soon." I sighed and stared up at the ceiling as Dad continued, "McMullen wants his best scientists at the lab 24/7. He's become more cautious after what happened to Alex, and once he hears about Alex being alive, he'll want to make sure he and his scientists are safe." Cáel frowned.

"He'd rather save himself, I'm sure. He started the entire project and if the virus was what changed Alex..."

"He'd go after McMullen for revenge," I finished. Dad pondered it for a moment before shaking his head.

"He wouldn't. I know Alex, if he _would_ go after McMullen, he wouldn't be reckless. Besides, he's not one to get riled up so easily." I chuckled nervously as memories of Alex rushing past the morgue and him landing in front of us appeared in my mind. _He looked angry..._

A ringing noise sounded and Cáel and I watched as Dad fumbled for something in his right pants pocket. He pulled out his cellphone and looked guiltily at us before standing up and answering the phone.

"Hello?" A pause passed and he walked out into the hallway. "Uh, yes, Mr. McMullen." Cáel and I knowingly glanced at each other, and we both frowned as Dad continued, "I have the samples ready in my office for you, sir." We could barely hear a voice on the other side of the phone and Dad seemed nervous. "Um, Mr. McMullen, that would require a lot of time for me to..." He trailed off as the voice talked some more and he sighed.

"Yes, sir." The voice spoke once again and Dad nodded. "I understand. I'll be there as soon as possible." He hung up and walked back into the kitchen, a distraught and exhausted look on his face as he looked up at us, replacing his phone back in his pocket. "McMullen wants me back at the lab. He wants me to get back to work on a project we're working on so we can stop the virus." He sighed as he walked into the hallway to go to the living room and Cáel stood up before he and I began to follow.

"Wait, what project?" I asked as Dad entered the living room and picked up his lab coat and put it on. Cáel and I stopped at the entrance and watched as Dad picked up his leather coat and draped it over his arm, all the while answering my question.

"It's some sort of repellant for the infected. I'm not so sure what its abilities are, but that's why McMullen wants us all back at the lab. I made some samples for a test run, and if they don't work out as he wanted..." He sighed as he grabbed his car keys and looked at us sheepishly. "Let's just say I'll be spending a lot of quality time in the lab." I felt my heart fall and Cáel looked like his just did, too. Dad smiled weakly as he walked over to us, bent down to our level, placed his right hand on my left shoulder, and his left on Cáel's right. "Hey, don't worry. Before you know it, this will all be over and everything will go back to how it used to be. You guys just need to have faith." I managed to muster a small smile and I nodded.

"Right. Thanks, Dad." Cáel smiled as well with a nod. Dad returned the gestures and stood up straight before looking at his wristwatch.

"Alright. Well, I better get going. I can't leave Karen to all that work." He walked to the front door and looked back at us with a grin. "Bye, kids." I waved.

"Bye, Dad." Cáel simply held up his hand.

"Yeah, goodbye, Dad." Dad nodded, opened the door, and walked through before closing the door behind him. We stood there in silence for a few minutes and I sighed.

"Well, seems like we have the whole day to ourselves...again..." Cáel nodded and at the same time, we both gave a long sigh. I turned and began to walk to the hallway. I could sense Cáel's eyes watching me and he asked,

"Where are you going?" I waved my hand from side to side.

"My room. I'm gonna look some stuff up on my computer." I approached my door and waltzed right in. I sat down in front of my computer and turned on the monitor, waiting for my desktop to appear. Finally the screen cleared, I yelped when a face suddenly appeared and I fell back, making that the second time I fell out of my chair in two days. I landed with a thud and I groaned in pain as I sat up. I heard muffled snickers and I turned to my doorway to find Cáel leaning against the door panel. He was smirking and I glared at him. He pointed to the screen and said,

"Thought I might see what you were going to look at." I narrowed my eyes and slowly began to ask,

"Did you-"

"Pull up that window on your computer? No. Maybe you should take a look at it." I raised an eyebrow and crawled over to my computer desk to look closer at the picture. It was a picture of a balding man wearing glasses and with a beard. I moved back in disgust.

"No wonder I was so terrified. It's McMullen." Cáel's voice chimed in,

"Really?" I nodded and said,

"Yeah. Take a look." Cáel walked up as I moved back into my chair and he leaned forward.

"Huh, it really is McMullen. What is this, though? An email?" I nodded and opened the email from my inbox. I squinted my eyes as I said,

"There's a voice message attached to it..." Cáel sat down on my desk.

"Play it." I nodded and clicked Play. A robotic voice soon began to talk through my speakers.

**"I've noticed that you've been hacking into our videos. You're lucky that I have a soft spot for children, especially when they're young girls, Leila Jaedyn."** I narrowed my eyes as he said my name. _Damn it...he knows who I am._ I looked at Cáel, who looked just as shocked as me. I turned back to my screen as the voice continued, **"I suggest you be more careful when you hack into our video network. Make sure you clean up your mess...You see the picture of that man I sent you?"** As if on cue, I looked at the picture of McMullen. **"You know him, don't you? Listen, If someone finds out about you hacking into our network and tells him, He won't hesitate to send someone to kill you. I don't want A dead kid on my hands, so Just watch what you're doing...I might contact you again if you make a bad move."** The message ended and I leaned back in my chair, devastated.

"I can't believe it..." Cáel got off of my desk and walked around my room in a circle, his arms up in the air.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, _shit!"_ He dragged out the last word and said, "You're in such deep shit!" He turned to me and he looked somewhat crazy. "If that guy tells McMullen about you, Blackwatch will come here and massacre us!" I took a deep breath and calmly replied,

"I know. But he said that he wouldn't." I paused before adding hesitantly, "I trust him." Cáel shook his head and angrily gestured to the outside of my window.

"Your trust doesn't matter! They can catch you if you're not careful enough! He said so himself!" I ignored him as he continued to scold me and I mumbled to myself,

"Who's it from, anyways?" I looked at the From address box and I raised an eyebrow at the word that was in it. "'The Specialist'?" I began to mutter in thought as I crossed my right leg over my left and leaned back in my chair, hand holding my chin as I pondered over the odd title.

"Oi!" I suddenly lurched forward as something hard made impact with the back of my head and I yelped in pain. I instantly covered my head with my hands and whipped around.

"What was that for?!" I whined as I semi-glared at my younger brother. Cáel crossed his arms.

"Did you even hear what I said? We're dead if Blackwatch finds out!" I lowered my hands and shrugged carelessly as I turned to my desk to find the hard thing that Cáel threw at me: One of my old history books. My eyebrow twitched violently and Cáel said,

"You're lucky I didn't use _my_ book." I slumped my shoulders and sighed, not in the mood to fight.

"Whatever. I'll be more careful next time, okay?"

"Wait, you're going to hack them again?!" I shrugged.

"Well, yeah. Dad wants me to, remember?"

"Well, Dad doesn't know about this message! You shouldn't be hacking them at all! If one of them knows who you are, then the rest of them are bound to find out, too!" He began lecturing me again and I turned to find him waving his hands around and making exaggerating movements. I raised an eyebrow and cut him off by asking loudly,

"Have you ever heard of some guy called The Specialist?" Cáel lowered his arms and he fell silent in thought. _Thank __God__, he finally stopped!_ Cáel narrowed his eyes as he struggled to make some connection with the title and he gave up with a shake of his head.

"Nope. Never." He raised an eyebrow. "Why?" I gestured to my computer monitor and replied,

"It's the title of the guy who sent this message." Cáel questioningly cocked his head and he walked over to look. He leaned forward on my chair before leaning back with a small humph.

"Hm...so it is." He turned around and I groaned before letting my head fall to my desk, making a dull thud sound.

"What now?" Not a moment later, a beep sounded from my computer's speakers and I snapped my head up to look at my screen. On my email window, there was a small chat box, blinking. I opened it and looked at who was attempting to chat with me. My eyes widened and I exclaimed, "It's him!" Cáel was instantly at my side, eyes focusing on the screen.

"Seriously?" I nodded and he asked, "What did he say?" I read the chat message and I raised an eyebrow.

The Specialist: Turn on your television.

I looked at Cáel and he was already out of the room, heading for the living room TV. After a minute or two, I heard him yell nervously,

"Leila!" I gave an uneasy glance at the chat box before getting up from my seat and running out of my room. I ran into the living room to see Cáel staring with wide eyes at the TV, which was on the news channel. I looked at the screen and froze when Lisa the anchorwoman repeated her report.

"Earlier today, we were told that two children were spotted in a _mass_ of mutants, surprisingly fighting them and giving the civilians time to escape. We now go live to the scene, where this miraculous event took place. Going to you, Bryan." The scene changed to the intersection we were at, with a brunette man standing before the camera.

"Thanks, Lisa. Bryan here, everyone, and I am standing at Intersection 24th, where the Army spotted these two children while they were searching for a threat."

"Must be talking about Alex..." Cáel muttered. I nodded and noticed that the intersection wasn't infested with mutants, but with dead bodies. _The Army must have taken care of all of them..._Bryan continued as he turned to a man in Army uniform.

"Lieutenant Reverend, can you tell us exactly what you saw?" The lieutenant nodded.

"We arrived around 11:00 a.m. this morning, and it was hard to make out, but there were definitely two kids here. One was a girl and the other a boy, both holding their own kind of weapons to fight off the mutants with. The girl had some sort of crowbar while the boy had a metal bat. Here, we have a video and we're sending it to your network now." I froze as the screen flashed and there was a hazy video being played. It seemed like it was filmed from a helicopter and I saw two figures moving rapidly behind the smoke.

"That's us!" Cáel exclaimed and I could only pale in devastation. The figures froze and I guessed that was when Alex appeared. After a minute or two, soldiers began to run in and that's when the figures ran off into an alley, still hidden behind the smoke and dust of the entire mess. Suddenly the video scratched and froze before it switched back to Bryan and Reverend.

"Unfortunately," Reverend began, "we weren't able to get a clear shot, but luckily a couple of our men who spotted the strangers described them to us as two kids. But, either way, it's still strange..." Bryan nodded and turned to camera.

"Indeed, it is strange. Who knows if we'll see these two children again, here to save many from the infected? I'm Bryan and-" The screen turned black as I turned off the TV with the remote. We stayed there in silence, shocked and dumbfounded. I suddenly leapt to my feet and ran back to my room, Cáel following close behind.

I sat down before my computer again, and realized that The Specialist had sent another chat message.

The Specialist: Turn on your television.

Does your father know about this?

I raised an eyebrow and began to type unsurely.

Me: No, he doesn't and we want to keep it that way. Just who the hell are you?! How did you know it was us?!

The Specialist: My identity is classified information. As for knowing those two kids were you, let's just say that I was around.

My right eyebrow twitched and I gritted my teeth angrily.

"This guy's not gonna tell us anything..." Cáel muttered as he leaned on my chair. I stayed silent and began to type some more.

Me: Are you going to tell him?

The Specialist: That doesn't matter. You both were stupid to go out and do that.

My right eyebrow twitched again as I felt anger rise within me.

Me: Are you just going to lecture us all day or are you going to get down to the point of why you contacted us?!

I leaned back and we waited for a response.

The Specialist: You're right. The reason why I'm chatting with you right now...is about ZEUS.

Cáel and I glanced at each other warily as we both had the same thought. The Specialist wants to know the information we have.

Me: You mean Alex Mercer?

The Specialist instantly replied.

The Specialist: Yes.

I looked at Cáel and he nodded, encouraging me to type the blunt reply we both had in mind.

Me: What about him?

The Specialist: I understand that your dad was best friends with him. I paled at the message and my eyes widened. _Does he think that Dad is helping Alex?_ Cáel's mouth was slightly open as he muttered,

"He thinks Dad is a double agent or something?" I nodded and asked,

"What should I tell him?" Cáel stared hard at my screen in thought and finally uttered,

"Tell him 'yes.' Let's just see what he wants first." I nodded and began to type again.

Me: Yeah.

The Specialist: How well do they know each other?

Me: Pretty well, I guess. They went to college together.

Cáel gave me a nod, showing me that what I was typing was established. I sighed and looked up at him.

"Should I just sign off on him?" Cáel scoffed.

"Unless you want him to tell the rest of Blackwatch about us." I paled slightly at that and turned to my computer as another message came up.

The Specialist: And they worked together at GENTEK?

Me: Yeah, before Alex got gunned down by you guys.

I typed in angrily and sat back in my chair with my arms crossed, frowning at the screen as we waited for The Specialist to reply. After a minute or two, a response message popped up.

The Specialist: ZEUS was a threat to the GENTEK and the entire world. It had to be neutralized.

I growled to myself and flung my hands at the keyboard, eager to type in my next reply.

Me: And GENTEK's bio-weapon isn't a threat? Look at what they've done. You should have neutralized them.

The Specialist: ...Look, I didn't bust my ass trying to track you down just so we could argue over who should have been killed. Now just listen and-

I didn't read anymore after I closed the email window and pushed myself out of my chair, cursing under my breath as I stomped over to my bed.

"What a bastard," I shouted. I sat down on my bed and fumed. "What an inconsiderate, heartless, bastard! That...That..." I groaned after searching for more insults with the results of none, and I grabbed one of my pillows. I stuffed my face into the feathery soft case, and furiously screamed as loud as I could. After my scream died, I lowered the pillow, my eyes narrowed and I looked to see Cáel staring at me. "What?" I asked, acid dripping in my voice. He paled and pointed at my screen.

"What do you mean, 'what?' You just practically hung up on a Blackwatch official! How do you know he won't get mad and tell the others about you?" I shrugged and my anger faded a bit.

"Like I said before, I trust him. Besides," I added as I laid down on my back, "He wouldn't tell anyone..." Cáel blinked, giving me a skeptical stare.

"And how do you know that?" I stared up at the ceiling and blinked.

"I just do...It's rather hard to explain on my part anyways, so let's leave it at that..." Silence followed my reply and I wondered if Cáel was going to say anything at all. After a few minutes, I felt the weight shift on my bed and I looked to see Cáel sitting on the edge, just next to me.

"...Do you...really think that everything will go back to normal?" I froze at the sudden question and I held my breath. He had a point. What if things never went back to normal? Dad would be at work all day and we wouldn't see him at all. The mutants or maybe even Blackwatch would find our house, and we'd either be imprisoned or eaten. What will happen to Manhattan? What will happen to us? What would become of the world? I shook my head abruptly, erasing those thoughts. _Calm down, Leila-it's not like you to worry about everything._ I sighed and uttered,

"Yes, I do. I have faith." Cáel scoffed.

"You make it sound like you're religious." I beamed at him and chuckled,

"It helps, you know. Faith gives you hope, right?" There was no reply for a while and I stared at the wall again before I heard Cáel sigh.

"Yeah, whatever..." He stood up and looked at me nonchalantly. "I'm going to my room." I simply waved my hand dismissively, indicating that I have heard him. I heard him walk out my door and close it behind him, leaving me to go over my thoughts in my room. _Alex Mercer...I wonder what he's doing right now. Has Blackwatch found him? Or the Army? Is he hiding somewhere?_ I blinked and sat up quickly, a baffled and furious look on my face.

"Why am I thinking about Mercer? Why should I be wondering about him?!" I exclaimed to myself. "He's a...a..." I paused, my eyes growing wide. "a..." Not finishing my sentence, I lowered my gaze to the floor, eyes softened. I brought my knees up to my chest, hugging them close as I buried my head in them. My world seemed to have grown a bit darker as terrifying pale blue eyes flashed in my mind.

No matter what, I could never bring myself to say it.

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_Another Note: I liked doing the chat conversation. It was fun and pretty interesting to put an online chat in story form. Review please. _


	4. McMullen

Author's Note: First of all!!!! While I was writing this short chapter, I realized that I got the viruses mixed up *bricks self* So, basically, the virus that was made by scientists and made specifically to be a weapon that can target specific nationalities, was REDLIGHT, not BLACKLIGHT. BLACKLIGHT, on the other hand, was the virus that GENTEK tried to make a cure to every disease with, including cancer. And for the sake of this series, I'm gonna have McMullen be involved with the REDLIGHT project in Hope, Idaho. I mean, he had Elizabeth in his freaking building, he had to be involved with the project. Also, in my profile, there are question and info corners for each of my series. So I shall post the one for Mutagenesis here: _Mutagenesis_ 1) Who's your favorite character so far, despite there's only a few? 2) For those who have seen the cutscene in the game when Alex finds Karen again after a side mission, I'm going to mention her fate later on :D :evil laugh: I want people to give me ideas of what happened to Karen so I can make it up ) JUST consumption isn't an option. So message me your answers/opinions/suggestions. Thank you very much~

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CHAPTER 4: McMullen

**2:00 p.m.**

I was aware that I was lying down sideways on something soft, and my eyes were closed. I shifted my head, groaning, consciousness slowly returning to my relaxed body. My eyes fluttered open and I found myself staring at my digital alarm clock, its red numbers blaring. _2 o'clock..._I thought to myself. I blinked, confused, and I looked down my body to find myself lying in my bed. _I must have fallen asleep..._Not feeling like getting up, I rolled over to face the ceiling and I laid there in silence, listening to the sound of cars and people outside our apartment. After a few minutes, I sighed and slowly rose to a sitting position. Dazed and sleepy-eyed, I glanced around my room, taking in everything as I tried to wake up all of my senses. I lazily turned to sit on the edge of my bed and let my feet rest on the floor, before I stood up. I yawned and rubbed my right eye with my right hand as I walked to my door. I opened the door and walked into the hallway, then I walked to the bathroom next to my room.

I turned the light on as I walked into the restroom. It looked like a normal apartment bathroom. A shower in the back, a separate room for the toilet, and the sink with a mirror hanging in front of it. I approached the sink and turned on the faucet. After I let the cold water run for a few seconds, I cupped my two hands and placed them under the faucet, pooling the gushing cold water within my hands. I bent forward, leaning over the sink with half-lidded eyes and I lifted my hands to splash my face with the water. I rubbed my hands against my face for a minute and lowered them, turning off the faucet in the process. I sighed in relaxation as droplets of the cold water ran down my face. I grabbed a nearby hand towel and dried off my face and hands. After I put down the towel, I placed my hands on the rim of the sink and used them to support my weight as I leaned forward with my legs behind me. I exhaled as I stared at the floor in a daze. _I feel so tired...am I stressed?_ I thought to myself.

I looked up to see my reflection in the mirror.

"And I look like shit..." I muttered. My blue-green eyes were narrowed with light bags underneath them, and my short brown hair looked like it was attacked by a tornado. My clothes were ruffled and wrinkly from sleeping in them and my face looked somewhat sickly.

"Yeah, you do." I looked to the door to see Cáel leaning against its frame, his eyes looking me over. "Had a nice sleep?" I glared lightly at him before sighing and turning back to the mirror, with my hand ruffling my hair.

"You can say that..."

"Hey." I looked at my younger brother as he walked up to me, concern in his blue eyes. "You okay? You don't look too good." I grinned weakly, and I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I just thought about too much..." Cáel stared at me as I stared at my reflection in the mirror.

"Was it Alex Mercer?" I gave no response and I leaned back to stand up straight, my arms loosely falling back down to my sides. I walked out of the bathroom silently, leaving Cáel in there alone, and I headed down the hall to the kitchen counter.

I sat down in the couch in front of the TV and propped my feet up on the table. I turned on the TV with the remote before I heard Cáel walk in and sit beside me. He leaned forward, his arms resting on his legs and I don't need to look to know he's watching me. After a few minutes of silence, he turned to face the TV. Another few minutes passed as we watched the news reports of mutant sightings when Cáel broke the silence in a soft voice.

"...You know, it's not a bad thing to think about Mercer. I admit that I get mad everytime you do, but I'm not stopping you..." I said nothing and he went on. "So, _were_ you thinking about him?" I stared at the TV impassively and said in a monotone voice,

"Yeah..." Cáel glanced at me.

"What about him?" I sighed.

"Just...what he's doing right now." Cáel leaned a bit toward me, placing his right arm beside him, clutching the edge of the couch lightly.

"What do you think he's doing?" I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the TV screen in thought before muttering,

"I think he's out after McMullen and the rest of GENTEK." Cáel leaned back to usual position and asked,

"Then, would he go after Dad?" I glanced at him with one eye closed.

"Nah. They're friends, remember? If anything, he would only go to Dad for help..." We sat there in silence for about half an hour until Cáel stood up and walked into the hallway, and I assumed he was heading for his room, leaving me alone in the living room.

Before I knew it, many hours had passed and it was close to dinnertime. I glanced surprisedly at the clock and blinked before standing up with a grunt.

"Guess I better make dinner..." I muttered. I stretched my arms out above my head as I walked into the kitchen and moved to the pantry door. I walked into the small room and glanced at all of the shelves of boxed foods and cans we had. I spotted a box of dried angel hair spaghetti, and I curiously grabbed it to look at it closely. I raised an eyebrow.

"Hm..." I turned the box to look at the back before shrugging. "Spaghetti it is, then." I walked out of the pantry with the angel hair box held in my right hand. As I reached the kitchen counter, I placed the box on its surface before looking in the bottom drawer for a pot.

After setting a pot on the stove in front of me, I grabbed the angel hair box and read the back. "_Pour 3 cups of water into the pot.._." I leaned my head back a bit with a raised eyebrow after reading the first instruction. This was my first time cooking spaghetti but I've seen chefs doing it on TV so I had a little experience. "Well, okay..." I pulled out a measuring water cup and placed it in the sink. I turned on the faucet with the water set to hot and waited for the cup to fill. Once it was up to three cups I turned off the water and carefully carried the cup to the stove before pouring the water into the pot.

I turned on the stove to midway and watched as blue/orange flames ignited beneath the pot. I watched the flames as they flickered every now and then before giving a sigh and opening the angel hair box. I ripped open the cardboard top and looked inside the box to examine the stiff noodles before carelessly dumping them into the pot. I turned to the counter behind me and pulled a long wooden spoon out of a drawer. I turned back to the stove and began stirring the noodles with the spoon.

I gave a yawn as I stopped stirring after several minutes to start cooking the meat sauce. I dumped the tiny clumps of meat into the pot, before I opened a can of tomato sauce and poured it into the pot as well. I hesitantly stirred the pot's contents, thinking, _I hope I'm doing this right..._

After about fifteen minutes, I noticed that the water the noodles were in was boiling. I glanced uneasily at the sauce pot, and I stopped mixing its contents as I took hold of the spoon resting against the inside rim of the pot holding the noodles. I started to mix the noodles. I sighed as I continued stirring the angel hair, staring up at the ceiling, hoping this dinner won't end up terrible.

I'm sitting on the couch, watching the TV, with a bowl of my spaghetti in one hand, and with my fork in the other. I heard the sound of footsteps and I turned my head to see Cáel standing at the hall's entryway. His eyes met with the bowl in my hands, and he raised an eyebrow, but I cut him off before he could even ask, turning back to the TV screen.

"Food's up on the counter." I heard him walk over to said destination, not missing the clattering noise as he took a bowl and fork from one of the kitchen cupboards. There was a slick sound from behind me, and I assumed he was gathering some of the spaghetti to place in his bowl. A few minutes later, Cáel sat down beside me on the couch, with a bowl of spaghetti in his hand as well. After a few minutes of eating and watching the T.V in silence, I heard Cáel ask,

"Hey, you remember that project Dad said he was working on?" I finished chewing my food before I look at him with an arched eyebrow.

"You mean the repellant? Yeah, why?" Cáel fiddled with his fork as he queried,

"What do you think it's for?" I quirked an eyebrow.

"Uh, to _repel_ the infected mutants?" Cáel glared at me and he growled,

"That's not what I meant. Think about it." I blinked at him and he narrowed his eyes. "Why is McMullen suddenly so intent on repelling the infected?" I shrugged as I turned back to the screen.

"To save his own ass?" I suggested dully.

"That might be true, but there's got to be something else..." I rolled my eyes at my little brother.

"How about giving his company a good image?" I placed my bowl and fork on the table, and turned to Cáel, counting off my fingers as I explained, "GENTEK made the virus, virus gets out, GENTEK invents repellant to keep the infected away, then they'll _magically_ get rid of the virus, and in the end everyone will think they're heroes." Cáel frowned as he held his chin in his hand.

"What about Mercer? How does he fit into all of this?" I shrugged.

"They'll capture him, reveal him to the public as a 'terrorist,' and it will give them an even better image. After that. they'll probably strap him to an examination table and dissect the shit out of him."

"That must be it, then." I blinked at Cáel, as he lowered his hand and looked up at me. "The repellant. They'll use it on Mercer. McMullen doesn't care about what will happen to Manhattan. Hell, he doesn't even care about what will happen to the entire world." I watched as he continued slowly, "All he wants, is Mercer. The virus inside of him, BLACKLIGHT, McMullen wants it back and under containment." My eyes widened as it all dawned on me.

"He wants to test it more. He must think that Alex is the best outcome of the BLACKLIGHT project, despite the fact that the plan backfired and the virus was released in the city."

"Why would he want to keep working on it, though?" I narrowed my eyes.

"He spent a lot of money on this project. There's no way he's gonna give up now after seeing what the virus did to Alex. He's gotten so far, and I doubt he'll want to stop the project now." Cáel took another bite of his food, and I picked up my bowl again, as he says,

"But what is he after? He knows that the outcome of BLACKLIGHT isn't what he wanted..."

"He wanted the cure for cancer," I finished before taking a bite of my spaghetti. "But BLACKLIGHT can obviously do much more, and McMullen knows that now." Cáel's eyes widened, and I nodded, saying, "There's no doubt about it. He wants to make more creatures like Alex."

"Fuck," Cáel cursed under his breath. "If he catches Alex, he can build an entire armada of things like him...Wouldn't Blackwatch kill Mercer before McMullen has the chance to get a sample of BLACKLIGHT from him?" I shook my head.

"With the right amount of money and secret info, he can easily get them to stand down without a word...The military could be in on it, too, for all we know. After all, Alex is the only human bio-weapon that has a mind of its own. Make more like him, and have control over their thoughts, you got yourself an entire army of human bio-weapons at your disposal."

"You think McMullen is doing it to sell the research and army to the militia?" I shrugged.

"With all the money he spent on BLACKLIGHT, there's no doubt he'd sell the research. In fact, he can sell it to anyone he wants if the military doesn't catch him. Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia...anywhere." Cáel's eyes glanced left and right on the ground, searching his mind, before he looked up at me.

"If he does...there'll be a world war." I nodded, and I stood to my feet, my bowl in my hands.

"That's right..." I walked over to the kitchen, and placed my dish into the sink, before cleaning it. After that was done, I opened the dish washer and gently positioned my bowl and fork inside of it. I stood straight and stretched my arm up, yawning as I strained out, "I'm going to do some more research on McMullen. Maybe I can find out more about him." I lowered my arms and look at my little brother. "See if he attempted any other bio-weapons in the past." I began to walk to the hall. "When you're done, clean the kitchen for me, okay?"

"Sure thing," Cáel said with a nod. I walked down the hallway, and entered my room, before closing my door behind me.

I sighed as I leaned back against my door, before I glanced at my window, which still had the blinds over it. I sauntered over to the window, and I sluggishly pulled open the blinds, groaning as the light from outside hit my eyes. I blinked as my eyesight adjusted to the brightness of my room, and I shook my head. I turned and walked over to my desk, seating myself before my computer once I reached it. As I opened my internet browser, I briefly checked my email. I sneer. Nothing but spam...I deleted all of the irrelevant emails, and I tensed when my speakers started playing the sound a phone ringing. I lowered my volume a bit, before I realized that it was an incoming voice chat. I read the name of the person attempting to chat with me, and I scowled.

_**Incoming voice chat from: The Specialist.**_ I paused, before I glanced back at my door. The sound of rushing water and clanking dishes was all I needed to know that Cáel was busy. I hastily took my wireless headset in my hands and adjust it on my head, fixing the mic so it wasn't too close to my mouth. I turned on the headset, and I clicked Answer Voice Chat. That same robotic voice said into my ears,

"I'm surprised that you answered..."

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Another Note: Sooo? How was it? I know it's short, but I'm trying my best to update all of my stories. I'm starting to wonder which one's more popular...Mutagenesis or Fable of an Eagle? *shrug* Anyways, please review! =)


	5. An Explanation update news

Hello, everyone. I'm here to give you all an update on this story.

First of all, I'd like to thank all of those who've stayed with this fic ever since it was published, not to mention I owe you guys a _big_ apology. Seriously, you people had to deal with my stupid, ridiculous update pattern, and had to wait so long for new chapters ^ ^; So thank you so, so much for that, and I'm terribly sorry!

Alright, here's the news. Now...

**THIS IS NOT DEAD. NONE OF MY STORIES ARE, IN FACT.**

See, I've been going through the phase. Yes, I speak of _that_ phase, the one in which inspiration is _so_ hard to come by... Unfortunately, this phase struck my mind over the summer, and while I've been slowly working on the next chapter, I simply couldn't be excited, or at least satisfied with what I was writing.

I assure you, all of the reviews and faves/story alerts are very, _very_ well appreciated. That, and there's school...damn school. I am thankful for its efforts to make me smarter and strengthen my goals for future careers, but must it take up so much of my free time? *sigh* I really hope you all understand this.

As for the next chapter...it is still in the works. I think I have about _half _of it planned out, and I'm still trying to figure out how to type this 'plan' into the chapter.

When I look back on this story, I kinda frown at how much of a Mary-Sue my main characters (Leila and Cael) are. I mean, _TWO KIDS_, fighting mutants (not to mention that they suddenly _knew _how to fight). But! I'll continue writing this, so no worries :) I really like this story, so I'm definitely keeping with it.

But anyway, that's pretty much the news. I'll be working on _Mutagenesis: The Secret Behind Blacklight_, as well as my other fanfics, but be warned, I have _no idea_ when they'll be updated.

Now that I've explained myself, hopefully you guys won't kill me ^ ^; I feel much safer now! xD

Again, thank you all so much! I'm truly sorry!

Love you guys :)


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